Hi Charlotte, I too wanted instant relief and I didn’t get it. After a few days I told my Dr. that I wasn’t experiencing the almost “instant” relief she predicted. I misspoke on my last entry. Dr. began me on 20mg at the start. She then upped my dosage to 30 mg which was remarkable. No more stiffness or pain! So I would recommend, if you don’t feel better soon, to ask your dr. to increase your dosage. I was on 30mg for a week, then 25mg for a week, then 20mg. for 2 weeks. Then I tapered 2.5mg for one week at a time until I was at 10mg (where I am now.) So far only experienced one little joint flare which went away. Now I will taper 1mg per month until I can hopefully wean from prednisone. It seems like a long road, but it feels like the slow, conservative approach is the best way (at least for me.) Good luck. Liz Ward

My symptoms, which were extremely severe, improved within a couple days of beginning Prednisone at 10 mg/day down to about 4 on a scale of 10. The dosage was increased, at my request, after a couple days to 20 mg and the pain level went down to 2-3/10. Unfortunately that turned out not be enough, as I had a serious relapse a few weeks later, and the ER doctors placed me on 60 mg/day. That was very effective, within hours, in getting rid of almost all the pain, albeit had some pretty debilitating side effects. It is very hard to sleep after taking 60 mg of Prednisone.

From what I've heard, most PMR sufferers receive quite a bit of relief from Prednisone within a few days and at most a week. The dosage does sometimes have to be adjusted to fully relieve the inflammation, but even relatively low dosages should offer unmistakeable improvement within less than a week, and usually a few days. My understanding is that if this does not happen, the PMR diagnosis may have to be questioned.

It can take a few days, but if you're not experiencing full relief and are on a lower dose, I'd consider talking to your doctor and asking about increasing the dose. I know you mentioned your dose before, but can't remember what you started on... I think my dad started on 20 mg and ultimately had to go to 30 mg. The goal is to quash the inflammation (if you're positive for inflammatory markers) and almost all the pain, be stable for a while and then start a taper that hopefully keeps you mostly stable. If those dose isn't high enough, it may be harder for you to get to that point.

This is where my dad's rheumatologist says sorting it out can be "more of an art than a science." I think she means it's more like following what your body is saying... And then I tell her: "But that's the problem; I don't always understand what it's telling me to do..." >_<

There are a few people here in the group who've found splitting the dose helps them. That didn't work for my dad, because the prednisone really affected his sleep, so he has to take it all in the morning.